Grasso named D3baseball.com player of the year; four earn all-region honors

May 23, 2017

SALISBURY, Md. – The organization D3baseball.com released its 2017 D3baseball.com All-South Region team Tuesday morning as four Salisbury University players earned recognition. Pete Grasso garnered top honors by the organization as he was named South Region Player of the Year.

Grasso completed an outstanding senior season from both the plate and the mound. He played in 45 of 46 games, totaled team-highs in hits (72), batting average (.381), and at-bats (189). On the mound Grasso posted a 9-1 record with a team best 2.17 ERA while totaling 89 strikeouts and allowing only 22 earned runs.

For his career Grasso will finish top-10 in multiple statistical categories for the maroon and gold including tied for fourth in games played (169); first in at-bats (690), hits (252), triples (13), and runs scored (198); second in RBI (177); tied for fifth in doubles (43); third in total bases (381); fourth in strikeouts (192); and third in saves with 10.

This is the third postseason award for Grasso as he was named the Capital Athletic Conference Player of the Year and was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District team.

Joining Grasso on the first team was fellow senior Tom LaBriola and sophomore Jack Barry. LaBriola completed a solid senior year campaign in which he started every game at catcher for the Gulls, totaled team-highs in RBI (50) and doubles (16), and finished with 348 putouts while catching 13 runners stealing.

Barry turned in a solid second year in the maroon and gold leading the team in both home runs (12) and slugging percentage (.618) while finishing third on the team in doubles (11). He was the only player for Salisbury who tallied both double digit home runs and doubles this past season. Barry also finished one RBI away from tying for the team lead knocking 49 in 2017.

Both LaBriola and Barry were also named All-CAC first-team selections earlier this month while LaBriola garnered CoSIDA Academic All-District honors as well.

Jeff Oster rounded out the group being named to the second team. Oster completed his senior season with career-highs in starts (14), wins (10), complete games (2), and strikeouts (93) which was also a team-high. For the season he averaged 8.15 strikeouts per nine innings pitched while holding opponents to a team-low .225 batting average. This is Oster's second postseason accolade as he was an All-CAC first-team selection earlier this month.

The 2017 season marks the sixth year that D3baseball.com has named All-Region teams, with 800 players nominated. The ballot was then made available to SIDs, who voted for a predetermined number of players in their region, as well as D3baseball.com staff and contributors.

To view the D3baseball.com All-Region article in its entirety, click here.